Newport Beach Restaurant Week Menu: Great Maple at Fashion Island

Newport Beach Restaurant Week starts today, January 17, and goes on until January 26. I took the chance to explore some Orange County eats, since I'm not there much, and tried out the Restaurant Week menu at Great Maple Libations and Seasonal Plates, located inside the Fashion Island. The Great Maple will have a 3-course dinner menu for $30.

After driving to OC in LA traffic, we needed a refreshing cocktail to calm down! Lucky for us, the cocktails here were pretty good.

We started with the gin drinks. I had the Midnight Pineapple with cucumber and caramelized pineapple.

I like that the drinks here weren't too sweet. This was refreshing and hit the spot after the long drive.

Newport Sunrise Cooler made with G'Vine gin, basil, grapefruit, lime, Cointreau

The appetizer choices included Crispy calamari, lemon caper mayo, chili flakes, olives

The salty olives in the calamari were a great and unexpected addition. More fried calamari should come with olives!

The other choice was "market soup of the day". When I came it was Broccoli cream soup

There are three choice for the entree. I skipped the chicken and instead went with the Pan-seared Scottish Salmon, organic succotash, citrus beurre blanc.

We loved the succotash in this dish! The salmon was a tad overcooked but still moist enough.

Flat Iron Steak Strip, Roquefort blue cheese, pink peppercorn, served with cheesy scalloped potatoes

I asked for the steak to be medium rare and they cooked it perfectly. The pungent blue cheese is a nice complement to the meat.

We tried the whiskey cocktails next. Johnny's Kentucky Spirit ($11): Buffalo Trace bourbon, house smoked blackberries, sage, French sugar, bitters

Sweet and smoky.

N. S. Wolfhound ($11): Tullamore Dew whisky, clove syrup, Meyer lemon, vanilla, Cointreau Noir, fired clove

This cocktail was surprisingly strong, but sweet enough that it goes down easily. Dangerous ...

The dessert is a seasonal pie, which was cherry when I came in.

You can also check out the list of participating restaurants for Newport Beach Restaurant Week and the menus here. Remember, Restaurant Week starts today and goes on until January 26, 2014

Great Maple Libations and Seasonal Plates
1133 Newport Center Dr
Newport Beach, CA 92660
(949) 706-8282
http://thegreatmaple.com/